craschworks

Get Tough! How to win in hand to hand fighting. by W.E. Fairbairn. As taught to the British commandos and U.S. Armed Forces! Great line art.

Via :

Conservative Phone Sex

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=car.living&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&selm=1084098703.748081%40proxy.cnn.net.au&rnum=4

iving_in_car.htm>

Living in your car – Where to park is the problem.
Be careful about telling anyone you are homeless. Homeless people become
targets of crime and rape when it becomes known that you do not have a
support system to protect you.

Wal-Mart, in the past, has allowed people to park vehicles in their parking
lots in several Southeastern states. In some areas, due to damage, the
stores have made it illegal.

Generally, any well-lit parking lot that does not have trespassing signs is
a place to park for a few hours, but remember not to stay and make yourself
known for being there night after night. Most police have an unofficial
rule of allowing someone to park for up to six hours. Arrive at midnight,
be gone by 6:00 in the morning, and you most likely will stay out of
trouble.

Other places to park may cost a little gas money, but will be worth it in
the long run when you need more than 6 hours sleep. Truckstops that service
18-wheelers will not say anything about your extended parking, as long as
you stay out of the way of inbound and outbound routes to the gas tanks.
Parking to the side of the Truck Area – Night Parking (where truckers park
to sleep), is the place you can usually sleep for as long as needed.
Truckstops of America has a cordial staff, along with other chain
truckstops, and as long as you don't come back the next night, and tell
them you just need a night's rest, they won't bother you. Many truckstop
employees can offer helpful information on where you might park tomorrow
night.

We have a volunteer who wants to tell you more about living in your car.
HERE IS HIS ADVICE (from someone who knows):
The importance of stealth when car living
Average suburbanites (and the police who serve them) are a pretty nervous
and fearful bunch. They are easily scared by anything which is strange or
different to them. Homelessness certainly falls into this category– be it
voluntary or involuntary. Therefore, it is very important to create a
“stealth” vehicle for car living.
The first step in this process is to choose a model that does not stand out
(if you have the luxury of planning this ahead of time). I love VW vans as
much as anyone… but to a cop they scream “hippy” (and therefore,
harassment for you). I chose a Toyota van for my most recent hobovehicle
(dubbed “the mystery machine” by my cousin), but even it is a little too
uncommon. I recommend a “soccer-mom” mini-van, a plain work van, or any run
of the mill sedan or compact. you should remove all bumper stickers and
other distinguishing marks. You want it to be as non-descript as possible.

Once you have a vehicle, pull out all rear seats…. This will create your
living space. Next, block out all rear windows with black tinting (or use
black spray paint on the insides of the window). I sealed some insulation
board to the windows after tinting them… in order to block out light (and
drafts).

The last step is to create a partition to hide the rear area from the
driving area. I use a shower curtain rod that runs just behind the front
seats. I hang a dark blue sheet from it (doubled) and can slide it open or
closed quite easily. At night when I sleep, I slide the curtain closed.
from outside, especially when its dark, you can't tell there's a curtain…
It just looks like the rear area is in shadow.

(Note here from Karen's Homeless Prevention: Be careful not to black out
your windows in a state where it is illegal. Some states will arrest you
if your tint is too black & an officer cannot see you inside)

In summer, I'll usually put a sunshade on the front windshield, to provide
an extra bit of concealment.

With these modifications, I can park in populated areas and no one suspects
that someone is living in the van (although choosing good parking areas is
vital… a topic I'll cover at another time). in this sense, the suburban
lack of imagination works to your advantage. It would never occur to most
people that someone would choose to live in their car.. therefore, with a
bit of modification its quite easy to blend in…. even with a quasi-hippy
van like mine.
Overnight parking while car living
A stealth car and a good parking space are the essential ingredients to
pleasant car living. I have already covered the essentials of stealth
vehicles.. and they are essentials. a completely hidden rear-living area
and a non-descript car will take you far.
So where should you park at night? My first instinct was that a remote
and/or concealed area would be best. During the Nissan Sentra experiment, i
started by parking in an abandoned lot- concealed by trees. This worked for
a few days and then the police found me. The Athens police have always been
quite nice….It was very obvious that I was living in my car (this was in
my “pre- stealth days) but they didn't hassle me. They did tell me that I
couldn't park on the lot. I was brash and asked them where I could park
without them bothering me. They suggested any public parking space in the
downtown area… especially if it didn't have a meter. I thanked them and
found just such an area– only 100 feet from the lot I had been in.

The best parking spaces are, in fact, in populated areas… where your car
will be one of many. Ideally, this should be in a multi-use area… a place
with several different types of establishments. for example, my favorite
area (where I have never been bothered) is near a nightclub, an apartment
building, a convention center, and office buildings. as a result, cars come
and go at all hours. i could conceivably be at any one of these places, so
no one pays attention.

Other multi-use areas might include: a 24 hour grocery near apartments, a
24-hour gym near a motel, a late night restaurant with nearby offices, a
bar with condos nearby, etc… but these aren't always easy to find,…
especially in the suburbs.

In the burbs, I usually park in large apartment complexes. I choose a spot
that is caddy-corner to busy entrances or balconies.. I don't want to be in
line with front windows. I arrive and leave at off-peak times and once I
arrive I never leave the vehicle. I quickly crawl into the back, and pull
the partition that runs behind the front seats (a dark sheet on a shower
rod works well for this).

Also, I rotate between 5-6 complexes… going to a different one each
night. When its time to go, I quickly crawl into the front seat, start the
car, and leave. I did this for the last five months in Georgia and have
never been discovered.

Busy motels, truck stops, state parks, campgrounds, and the like are decent
for one-night, occasional stops… but not great for extended periods of
time. Multi-use areas with late night activity are best.

Of course, the ideal place is the driveway of a sympathetic friend. I had
this option last summer and it was perfect.

A NOTE ABOUT VERY BAD PLACES TO PARK (other than empty lots):

1. never park near a police station, as they are very observant of their
immediate surroundings.

2. never park in housing developments or upscale apartment buildings…
again, these people tend to be paranoid and hyper-vigilant.

3. never park where there are a lot of children (in a school zone or
daycare area, for example), as you may be mistaken for a stalker.

4. don't park near banks or other high security areas, as again, these
people are hyper-paranoid.

5. in general, don't tell friends or others about the locations you park
in. 6. if confronted by the police… never admit to sleeping/ camping in
your vehicle even if its obvious!!!! (tell them you got tired and were
“resting” before going home (or to a friends or whatever).

Finally, try to keep your movements slow and gentle when parking
overnight… as you don't want people to notice the car shaking or rocking
!!

WE HOPE THIS ADVICE WILL HELP YOU TO LEARN TO BE DISCREET. PEOPLE'S FEAR OF
THE WORD “HOMELESS” LEAVES YOU IN A SITUATION OF JUST TRYING NOT TO SCARE
PEOPLE.. OTHERS DON'T KNOW YOU ARE NOT DANGEROUS.. TO THE AVERAGE CHURCH-
GOER OR CITIZEN.. “HOMELESS” MEANS “DANGEROUS”.

3. Browse at Truckstops – Resources for homeless people are a lot like the
same kind of support used by OTR Truck Drivers (OTR – Over the Road).
Truckstops offer a variety of information for living out of your “truck”.
You might even learn to like it as a lifestyle, when you realize you can
run a dorm refrigerator, TV, and even a VCR from your car. Park and watch
the News on TV before you go to sleep. It's easier than you think.. All it
takes is adapting your car with $40 worth of supplies that can be bought at
any auto parts store.

4. Your Car Generates Electricity – USE IT!
Plug these conveniences into your cigarette lighter:
Camping stores and large retail stores sell a camping convenience that
looks like a “Coil” that plugs into the cigarette lighter in your car. Plug
in your coil, put it in a cup of water. When the water is hot, unplug and
remove the coil and add instant mixes: Instant Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Cup-
of-Soup, Ramen Noodles.

TV/VCR combinations will run off your cigarette lighter (small 8″ tv/vcr
combo made for a car – from a store such as Bestway or Radio Shack) and can
be bought at large retail outlets that sell camping supplies (K-Mart or
Wal-Mart), or large electronics retail chains. If you plan to watch tv for
hours – keep the engine running to keep the battery charged up or have a
separate battery installed that is not connected to the battery that
“starts” your car.

TO RUN LARGER APPLIANCES
Buy a convenience from an electronics department or Radio Shack that acts
like a cellphone charger. This little convenience has a slot to plug-in
your appliance and has a 110-volt plug like a hairdryer.

Another convenience changes car voltage to 110 electricity. Buy an
“Inverter” from any auto parts store for $40 – $100, depending on how many
amps you will run off the battery. A car works off of 12-volt electricity
from the battery. An inverter can be hooked up to a battery so that
anything that would run in your house – a smaller version can be plugged
into the inverter and run in your car. The inverter hooks to your battery,
but the plug on your appliance is just like a wall-plug in your house, and
you plug in a smaller appliance that runs off less amps.
A $40 inverter will run a grill, like a griddle, around 1' square to cook
meal.

An extra battery under the hood is a good idea if you use your inverter
every morning to dry your hair. Running a second battery to power your
hairdryers, tv, griddle, etc. – keeps your car battery from going dead. To
use power, keep your engine running. An appliance can drain your battery
sometimes within twenty minutes, and then you can't start your car.

Turn off the car engine BEFORE sleeping – to prevent suffocation from
fumes.

5. BUY CAMPING SUPPLIES – PRETEND YOU ARE CAMPING!!!
Baby-boomers pay big bucks for camping appliances, which has created a
convenience market around cars, camping and travel. Go to any store that
sells camping supplies and browse. You would be amazed at the 10 for $1
sales on vacuum-packed meals at Army Navy Surplus stores that won't go bad
so there's no need for refrigeration. Stores such as Sears once sold
through their catalogue a tent that hooked to the back of a van – just
install snaps and you're camping.

Via flutterby:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/13/HO126062.DTL&type=printable

THE MAN WHO WOULD FEED THE WORLD
John Jeavons' farming methods contain lessons for backyard gardeners too
- Amy Stewart, Special to The Chronicle
Saturday, April 13, 2002

On a visit to the University of California Santa Cruz's Farm and Garden a few years ago, I met an apprentice who was trying to grow an entire year's food supply in one small corner of the farm. He planted wheat, corn, beans, potatoes and a variety of salad crops.

Although it would be several months before the first harvest, he had already put himself on a diet consisting only of the food growing in his garden. He looked skinny, but not malnourished, on his diet of bread made from wheat he ground himself, dried beans and canned tomatoes.

“The only thing this diet lacks,” he told me, “is a good source of vitamin B12. It's hard to get enough B12 from vegetables.”

I pointed out that his diet was also deficient in chocolate, decaf lattes and fettuccine alfredo, three items I considered essential to my own health and well-being. He just laughed, shrugged his shoulders, and went back to sowing beans.

I didn't know it at the time, but this earnest young apprentice was a disciple of John Jeavons, organic gardening expert and author of “How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine.”

For more than 30 years Jeavons has been preaching the benefits of small- scale, sustainable farming. Now, on a farm just outside Willits, Jeavons operates the nonprofit Ecology Action and teaches his methods to gardeners from as far away as Siberia, Africa and Latin America.

Sitting in his kitchen one afternoon, Jeavons shows me snapshots from those workshops.

The students stand in a circle around him while he demonstrates his soil preparation technique. He is a distinguished fellow of 60-something who manages, in his trademark tweed coat and cap, to make digging in the dirt look elegant.

In fact, he looks more like an Ivy League professor than an organic gardening visionary, and it is easy to see how he could be effective in both worlds: He recently presided over a worldwide food and soil conference at UC Davis in which farmers and scientists came together to address the looming food shortage that is the focus of Jeavon's work today.

Jeavons sets the photographs aside and recalls the question that led to the development of his farming techniques.

“In the early 1970s, I went to the San Joaquin Valley, where approximately 30 percent of the food in the United States was being grown at the time, and I asked farmers this question: “What is the smallest area you can grow all your food and income on?' And they said, “Well, we don't know, but if it's a good year, if you have a thousand acres of wheat, you'll be able to pay your bills. ' “

“I realized that if I wanted to know the answer to my question, it was 'tag- you're it.' “

By 1972, Jeavons had formed Ecology Action and was farming nearly four acres in Palo Alto. Alan Chadwick, pioneer of the French intensive/biodynamic method of farming, came up from Santa Cruz to teach classes. The first edition of “How to Grow More Vegetables” was published two years later. At last, Jeavons was finding answers to the question he'd been asking farmers for years.

“It takes about 15,000 to 30,000 square feet of land to feed one person the average U.S. diet,” he says. “I've figured out how to get it down to 4,000 square feet. How? I focus on growing soil, not crops.”

Jeavons took the best of Chadwick's intensive farming techniques, including double-digging, composting and closely-spaced planting, and added a few ideas of his own.

An organic farm should be a closed system, he reasoned. Off-the-farm inputs like manure, bagged compost, alfalfa meal and liquid kelp all require additional land, water and resources to produce. That, in Jeavon's view, is hardly sustainable agriculture.

“We have an opportunity to grow very high yields using a fraction of the resources. One of the ways we do this is by growing all the organic matter that we need in the garden, or on the farm, that's producing the food.”

This closed-system concept is the hallmark of Jeavons's Grow Biointensive method, a term he registered as a trademark in 1999. It allows farmers to grow large quantities of food with few expenses beyond seeds and manual tools.

And Jeavon's method is about more than dirt-under-the-nails farming; he has 30 years' worth of data to back him up. Each edition of “How to Grow More Vegetables” contains more statistical data than the one before: In the latest edition, for instance, you can calculate the precise number of beet seeds you'll need to grow 30 pounds of beets, along with the protein and calorie content, space requirements, and the percentage of the harvest (i.e., trimmings and inedible portions) that can be returned to the soil as compost.

While this approach may be an interesting experiment for a university student, it could be a matter of survival for people all over the world.

Conventional farming practices, Jeavons explains, deplete the soil of nutrients and lead to wind and water erosion. In the face of increasing populations and a dwindling supply of farmable land, he sees his approach as a sustainable, soil-friendly way to feed the world.

“So we're talking not just about this fantastic technique for raising really tasty fresh food with only a fraction of the resources, but we're talking about rebuilding soil. With our methods, you can actually build up to 20 pounds of farmable soil for every pound of food eaten.”

Jeavons gets up from his kitchen table and leads me outside, where we walk down a sunny slope to the mini-farm he and his apprentices tend.

He moved Ecology Action to this site outside Willits in 1982. The nonprofit's Common Ground Garden Supply store is still located in Palo Alto, but it is here, in Willits, where he teaches most of his workshops, conducts research, and oversees the day-to-day operations of the Bountiful Garden catalog business.

Farming conditions in Willits are far from perfect, but Jeavons sees a benefit to the difficult site. In the new edition of “How to Grow More Vegetables,” he writes that the “heavy winter rains, prolonged summer droughts, short growing season, steep slopes, and depleted rocky soil are similar in many ways to those in countries where Ecology Action's work is having its most dramatic impact.”

We stand on a rise above his terraced farm. Nestled in the center is a familiar sight: a large circular garden planted with all the crops that would be required to feed one person for one year.

I have begun to recognize the typical Jeavons garden: It is densely planted with carbon crops like corn, wheat and millet that are important food sources but also produce plenty of high-carbon scraps for the compost pile.

Over half of the garden is devoted to these seed and grain crops. Another third is given over to high-calorie root crops like potatoes, parsnips and turnips. These crops store well and produce a large amount of calories in a relatively small space.

That leaves only a few small beds for the vegetables that occupy most ordinary gardens: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce and broccoli.

Still, Jeavons tells me, thanks to closely spaced plantings and compost- enriched, double-dug beds, these smaller beds produce enough vitamins and minerals to sustain a person for a year.

It's late in the afternoon. All this talk of food production has made me hungry. Back at his office, Jeavons has stacks of research papers and pages of statistics to give me. But for the moment, we are two gardeners in early spring, looking down on the beds of young fava beans, onions, lettuce and herbs. And like any other gardener, Jeavons is eager to show off his work.

“Come down to the garden,” he says. “There's a few things here I want you to taste.”
EIGHT STEPS TO GROW BIOINTENSIVE GARDENING

– Double-dug, raised beds. Loosening the soil to a depth of 24 inches allows roots to penetrate more deeply and creates a raised bed effect. John Jeavons' video “Dig It” demonstrates an Aikido-style movement that makes double-digging almost effortless.

– Composting. A healthy compost pile is key to replenishing the soil.

– Intensive planting. “Ignore the spacing instructions that come with your seeds,” Jeavons told me. Plant seedlings so close that when they are mature, the leaves touch. This keeps soil moist and prevents weeds from sprouting.

– Companion planting. Green beans love strawberries, corn provides shade to cucumbers, and fast-maturing radishes grow well in between slower-growing carrots.

– Carbon farming. Corn, millet and oats, along with other seed and grain crops, make up an important part of the diet and provide plenty of high-carbon additions to the compost pile.

– Calorie farming. Growing a year's food supply means focusing on high- calorie, space-efficient foods like potatoes and parsnips.

– Open-pollinated seeds. Special hybrids aren't needed in healthy soil, Jeavons says. Using open-pollinated seeds like the ones offered in his Bountiful Gardens Catalog helps preserve genetic diversity.

– Use the whole method. Jeavons emphasizes that high yields come from using all Grow Biointensive components together. — Amy Stewart
RESOURCES

– Common Ground Garden Supply, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto; (650) 493-6072 www.commongroundinpaloalto.org. Ecology Action's nonprofit gardening store sells seeds, plants, tools and books. Classes (taught by John Jeavons and others) are offered regularly.

– Bountiful Gardens,(707) 459-6410; www.bountifulgardens.org. Ecology Action's nonprofit catalog offers inexpensive seed packets, along with plants, books and tools.

BOOKS, VIDEOS, ETC.

– “How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine” (Ten Speed Press, 2002).

– “The Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields” (Ten Speed Press, 1995).

– “Proceedings From the Soil, Food and People Conference: A Biointensive Model for the Next Century” (Ecology Action, 2001).

– “Dig It!” double-digging video (Ecology Action, 1997).

– Ecology Action booklets and research papers are available on a wide variety of topics. Some are published in Spanish, Arabic, French, German and Hindi. Check the Bountiful Gardens catalog for details.

WORKSHOPS, CLASSES, FARM TOURS

The Common Ground Garden Store in Palo Alto offers classes on a wide range of topics, from worm composting to drip irrigation. Upcoming classes include:

– Introduction to Grow Biointensive and Double Digging, both with John Jeavons, April 20.

– How to Start an Organic Garden with Jody Main, April 27.

– Plants for Garden Pollinators with Kate Griffin, May 4.

– Aromatherapy in the Garden with Jeanne Rose, May 11.

Events are held throughout the year at Jeavon's farm in Willits. Call (650) 459-0150 for more information. Upcoming events include:

– Farm tours: May 25, June 8, June 22 and Aug. 3.

– Workshop: Grow Biointensive one-day workshop Sept. 7; three-day workshop Nov. 1-3.

Amy Stewart is the author of “From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden” (Algonquin Books, 2001).

Page 1WB
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/13/HO126062.DTL

writes:

Bay Area folks – I'm giving a talk at SCU next Wednesday
This is a reminder that I'll be giving a talk about Seasteading at Santa Clara University, at the Brass Rail in Benson Memorial Center, next Wed. the 27th, 5:30-7PM. It's sponsored by the Civil Society Institute, and it's open to the public. Here's the flyer.

I've never heard him speak in a professional setting, but Patri's quite entertaining in person. And I think seasteading is a good idea that will become an increasingly important political and economic phenomenon. So go!

http://spofga.org/build/2004/sept/vote_2004.phtml

The Myth of the Wasted Vote
by Charles L. Hooper

Recently, I was surprised to see a long-term Libertarian's car sporting a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker. “What's with the Kerry bumper sticker?” I asked my friend. “Isn't it self-explanatory?” he replied sarcastically. “Okay, okay, I see that you’re going to vote for Kerry. I just want to know why. I thought you would be voting Libertarian.”

He then proceeded to tell me that while he doesn't like Kerry, he simply despises George W. Bush. “You don't want to waste your vote on somebody that you fundamentally disagree with, do you?” I asked him. “I've been wasting my vote for years by voting Libertarian,” he replied bitterly.

“Ah, but you will be wasting your vote this year because Kerry is almost assured to take California. One extra vote won't make a difference.” I hadn't run the numbers, but I was sure that my friend's vote wasn't going to affect the California electoral vote and, therefore, had no chance of affecting the national result.

Since our conversation I have run the numbers, and they are mind-boggling. Based on these results, reasonable people may conclude that they should never vote. But if you do decide to cast your vote, as I have, you should vote for the best candidate and abandon any attempts to displace the disliked Kerrys, Bushes, Clintons, Reagans, Carters, and Gores of the world.

To run the numbers, I created a Monte Carlo computer simulation model and ran well over 300,000 simulations. My model has two pretty evenly matched main political parties and three smaller ones that fight over roughly ten percent of the vote total. I defined voting groups, each with probability distributions. With these groups defined, I ran multiple runs of the model at 5,000 iterations (5,000 elections) each while varying the number of total voters.

It turns out that your one vote, and mine too, has a probability of swinging any evenly-matched election based on the following formula: Probability equals 3.64 divided by N, where N is the total number of votes cast. So for a small election, say for a homeowners' association with 100 members, your probability of casting the vote that determines the outcome is about 3.64 percent (or 0.0364). Stated differently, you'd have to vote in 27.5 elections to determine a single one. As we move up to the state and national level, the odds fall dramatically. With 11 million voters in California, where my friend and I live, the probability drops to 3.3 x 10-7 (0.00000033), which means that you'd have to vote in over three million presidential elections to determine the winner in California just once.

Of course, California isn't the whole country. California currently has 55 electoral votes out of a total of 538, with 270 needed to elect a president. Since 1852, when Californians first voted for U.S. president, California has been a key swing state in only two presidential elections. In 1876, California cast 6 electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes, who beat Samuel J. Tilden by the razor-thin margin of 185 to 184. In 1916, California cast 13 electoral votes for Woodrow Wilson, who beat Charles E. Hughes by 277 to 254. In either election, if California voters had gone the other direction, the national totals would have followed. In every other presidential election, however, the winner was determined regardless of how Californians voted. By acknowledging that California has been a swing state in only two of its 38 elections (5.3%), we can get to our final answer: A voter in California would have to vote in 57.5 million elections to determine one President of the United States.

This ignores voting error and fraud, but even with them, there is still a point at which the official vote total swings from candidate A to candidate B. The question is whether you will cast that key vote. And the answer is that it’s extremely unlikely.

What does this mean? Well, first of all it means that you'd have to vote for a very long time – 230 million years – to swing one election and all you'd have to show for it is a Bush in the White House instead of a Kerry (or visa versa). If you are like me and many other voters, you can't get very excited about either Bush or Kerry, so your final payoff would be lackluster, at best. For those who still think these odds look acceptable, consider the following comparisons. You are 12 times as likely to die from a dog attack, 34,000 times as likely to die in a motor vehicle accident, and 274 times as likely to die in a bathtub drowning as you are to swing a presidential election.

My friend thinks that his Libertarian votes have been wasted and that his vote for a Democrat will matter. This analysis shows that his vote for Kerry has a vanishingly small expected value. Even if he would be willing to pay $10,000 to determine the winner in November, the expected value (probability times value) of his vote for Kerry is only $0.00017. Americans won't even stoop to pick up a penny on the ground yet every four years they happily cast votes worth one fiftieth as much. Voting may still make sense, but the overall satisfaction of participating in a great democracy must be compared to the time and costs of voting. The expected vote-swinging outcome is rounding error. In fact, if you drive to your polling place, you are approximately ten times more likely to die in an accident on the way than you are to swing that presidential election.

Now, what if my friend votes for Michael Badnarik, the 2004 Libertarian candidate? Is that vote wasted? Well, it is clear that no third-party candidate will win the 2004 election, but my friend's support would certainly help his favorite political party stay in business and therefore get noticed. While it is in business, his party will help define election issues and could even get lucky and elect a president. Abraham Lincoln and Jesse Ventura are good examples of third-party candidates who were elected. Ross Perot in 1996 and 1992, American Independent George Wallace in 1968, and Progressive Robert LaFollette in 1924 were presidential candidates who got a large percentage of the popular vote. More likely, as any third party becomes successful, the Democrats and Republicans will simply adopt that party's platforms. The same thing happened with the Socialist party early in the 20th century. As Milton Friedman points out, the Socialists failed miserably with a popular vote total that peaked at only six percent in 1912. But they succeeded in the way that matters most. Dig below the surface and you'll find that virtually every economic plank of the Socialist's 1928 platform has since been written into law. The votes cast for these Socialists certainly weren't wasted from the point of view of those who cast them.
Your one vote has the same power to affect the results whether you vote for a major or minor candidate, but a vote for the candidate you respect and agree with gives you the expectation of a better outcome. If you are like me and do take the time and effort to vote, you should put your X beside the candidate you think will be the best president, not the one most likely to beat the guy you dislike. The myth of the wasted third-party vote is just that – a myth. If there is a wasted vote, it is the one cast futilely against the candidate you dislike in an attempt to swing the national election.

September 21, 2004

Charles L. Hooper [send him mail] is president of Objective Insights, a company that consults for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. His forthcoming book, coauthored with David R. Henderson, is Thinking Works: Your Inside Track to Great Results. Charley is a visiting fellow with the Hoover Institution.

http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getmailfiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2004/10/15&ID=Ar01600

Publication:The New York Sun; Date:Oct 15, 2004; Section:Knickerbocker; Page:16

Oh,To Freely Pursue the Scholarly Life!

GARY SHAPIRO [email protected]

New Yorkers are by nature independent-minded. So it’s right that the biennial conference of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars is being held this weekend in Midtown.

Participants range from a historian of debt peonage to a Jungian psychologist studying medieval fiction. What they share is the pursuit of academic research without salaried university positions.

William Manchester, Robert Massie, and Barbara Tuchman are among those who have forged scholarly careers outside the academy. They found the freedom to pursue topics that do not neatly fit accepted boundaries.

“You have freedom to follow your own bliss without regard to fashions and trends,”said Ronald Gross,an independent scholar. “You can pick up any subject,and nobody is going to say ‘no,’” said Odeda Rosenthal, who has written a reference book on colorblindness.

Working from home offers advantages such as the freedom from papers to grade or departmental meetings to attend.The drawbacks tend to be financial. “To me, there’s nothing like a regular income,” said sociologist Nathan Glazer, who has taught at Berkeley and Harvard.

Many independent scholars have day jobs or hold down several small jobs to sustain themselves. Julia Ballerini, who researches 19th-century travel photography, speaks of “supporting my habit.”

A chief obstacle independent scholars face is access to libraries.The coalition’s president, Georgia Wright, says she cannot use interlibrary loan without relying on her husband’s university affiliation. Another scholar from Canada lives in a recreational vehicle and emails another NCIS member who faxes library materials to him.

Other hurdles include getting the requisite letters of recommendation for grants and fellowships. “It’s middle-level scholars in academe who tend to look down on independent scholars. I recommend that they go to absolutely top people” for assistance, said Mr. Gross.They can afford to evaluate work on its merit, even if from an intriguingly unorthodox angle, he said. “Good scholarship is good scholarship, wherever it comes from,” said Janet Wasserman, a specialist in Franz Schubert.

Karen Reeds of Princeton, N.J., said independent scholars have to work considerably harder to get an editor at a university press to look at a book proposal.

There is a sense that academia is getting more used to independents. The Modern Language Association has begun welcoming them on committees.

Ms.Wright believes the independent scholarship has matured: “We’re no longer crying about not getting into libraries, people are talking about what they’re doing. There is more acceptance now than even 10 years ago.”

Still it is hard to completely define an independent scholar. Ms. Wright points out that some “think you should admit anyone creative. If you’re just reading, you’re not a scholar; you’re a thinker.There are these little schisms.”

Ms. Ballerini said a lot of people are ashamed of being independent scholars: “They will put down any remote affiliation they have, such as where they may be teaching one course. I believe it’s time for the label independent scholar to be worn with pride.”

At one conference, poetry scholar Charlotte Mandel wrote down “independent scholar” and was introduced as “unaffiliated.” “I complained about that. I feel very much affiliated to my work,my family” and others, she said.

The nonhierarchical spirit of the coalition is captured by their organizational directory, which lists a scholar’s interest areas, without mentioning any educational degrees. What you research is what matters, not your title.

The interests of independent scholars are mesmerizingly far-flung.

Ms. Reeds is attempting to start a museum in New Jersey at the site of the former village of epileptics.

Ms. Wright is a medieval art historian who co-directs the Limestone Sculpture Provenance Project, which uses neutron activation analysis to figure out where pieces of medieval sculptures in museums come from.

Ms. Rosenthal ran a guesthouse in East Hampton and happened on the subject of cosmogony when someone whose house portrait she was painting suggested she contact her sister-in-law. She was also talked into writing a book about the Jews of New Zealand by a woman she met at a bus stop.

Ralph Dumain, who studied linguistics and library science, runs a Web site about autodidacts. He studies the work of Caribbean-born intellectual C.L.R. James, whose work he discovered accidentally while “hanging around the university of Buffalo library,looking through the new book section.” Mr. Dumain has translated James into Esperanto.

Robert Kanigel, who actually now teaches science writing at M.I.T., researches natural and synthetic leather, a pursuit which has lead him to a vinyl factory in Sandusky, Ohio, as well as a meetings of the American Leather Chemists Association.

Ms. Rosenthal sums up the lure of the academic independence this way: “I have added to the font of knowledge and have had a good time.”

Just who are members? More independent scholars work in the humanities, since science is too expensive to pursue on one’s own. Mr. Gross said a notable exception is astronomy, a field where amateurs have played a vital role.

A majority of current NCIS members are female: “Women finally got into academe at just the wrong point in the 1960s and mid-1970s and many got sidelined.”The baby boom burst at that point, Ms. Wright said.

When the academic market contracts, the numbers of independent scholars tend to increase.

Independent scholars, Ms. Wright said, can be found in any area with good universities. Faculty spouses are one source of members; another is emeriti faculty who have left academia and need a support group, she said. Members tend to be scattered along both coasts.

Clusters of independent scholars exist in San Diego, San Francisco, North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Princeton, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Conn. New York used to have an organized group, but it does have the university seminars at Columbia. “Chicago is a great disappointment,” said Ms. Wright. “One of the problems is that independent scholars are so damned independent. It’s like herding cats.”

Besides (i) adding anti-sway bars, (ii) replacing rubber bushings with polyurethane and (iii) replacing standard shocks with Bilsteins, other fixes include http://www.amtechsprings (rollgard) and http://www.activesuspension.com. You can also increase the track by using offset wheels or adding http://www.correctrack.com.

Back in the day, early '80's, I had a '79 Dodge 150 van that I customized
(vanning was popular then before fuel got crazy) I put a set of Hellwig
stabilizer bars on it. The front bar was a lot heavier than the stock bar
and the rear was a bolt on addition as no rear bar came stock on that truck.
With 50 series tires on that truck and the bars I got great joy in pushing
guys in 3 series beemers down off ramps. Body would lean a little and take a
set and away we went. If it had more motor I could have power slid the truck
like a sports car of the day.
The bigger bars were money well spent on that truck and the bars were
trouble free for over 150k miles when I sold it at 180k.
A good set of bars will help that high top's handling for sure.

“davewisconsinbadger” wrote;

> My wife and I are empty nesters. We have about 13
> wooded acres in northern WI with a spring, off-grid,
> and sometime in the next couple years we plan to build
> a summer home there. We like the idea of a wooden yurt
> with a metal roof, but have not actually spent a night in
> one. We have been in a vinyl yurt and it was OK short-
> term, but I don't think it would last 10 years. I'd like
> our little place to last at least 30.

Hello Dave.

I am just east of you in northern lower Michigan.

It sounds like you might like an octagon house, which will
give you the multi-directional orientation of a round yurt,
with the easier construction (more congruous with the flat
doors, windows, and wood) of a rectilinear building. It is
also far easier to furnish than the curved walls, and offers
eight different wall orientations from which to experience
a single living space. That can help make it feel bigger, as
well as more private, when that is needed. An octagon is
basically a square with equilateral, truncated corners. It
is also more compatible with passive Solar strategies, that
can keep it from freezing in your cold northern Wisconsin
winters, and will supply most of the heating in the spring
and autumn.

An octagon, or other polygon, can also still use the primary
unique structural characteristic of a yurt, which is the tension
ring, around the top of the exterior wall, that allows the roof
to be self supporting, without ceiling joists, or collar ties.

> We would probably dragoon the nephews and neices into
> helping with the labor, so would probably want pre-cut or
> even pre-fab materials.

If you are able to find a kit, it would probably require a lot
of design compromises. However, a good design can take your
unique construction process into consideration, and plan for
it. There is not a large percentage of the work, that would
really be saved, since you still have to do the foundation and
floor deck. Then, after the shell is up, the interior work still
needs to be done. A shell is only half a house. You could have
the exterior walls partially pre-fabbed of SIPs (structural
insulated panels) which are a sandwich of an exterior sheathing
(plywood or OSB), then a thick layer of a foam insulation, and
then drywall on the interior side. They generally give a very
good insulation value, and reduce the actual on-site construction
time. However, they are not cheap, and may even require a crane
for their placement. SIPs are also very compatible with timber
framing. Timber frames are available, custom pre-fabbed, too.
Lumber yards stock “pre-cut' studs, to reduce the on-site labor.
Walls can be assemble fairly quickly, so you could “pre-fad”
them yourself, once the floor deck, or another flat work
surface is available.

You could also get a metal silo roof, as a kit, though it
would not solve any issues involved in finishing the inside of
such a roof. Metal roofs have a tendency to produce con-
-densation, so a good vapor barrier, and ventilation are
important. Otherwise, you could just glue up fiberglass,
and hang a parachute, or other cloth, as your ceiling.
Here is a good discussion on round metal roofs. Be
sure to follow the thread through several posts:

http://solstice.crest.org/discussion/strawbale/200208/msg00125.html

Silo House:

http://tinyurl.com/4okmc

Here are metal roof kits:

http://www.hurmak.com.tr/products/silo/

http://www.demuth.com/farm.htm#Roof

http://www.lancasterdomes.com/

Once you can define what it is about a yurt that you
really want, you will be free to also explore other features,
that yurts do not offer. I have done a few polygonal houses,
that had observation rooms, way up in the peak. One was
an office/showroom, out on a farm, for people who made
fancy plaster architectural trimwork. for houses and for
institutional buildings all over the country. They would
receive an old short, even damaged piece, and would then
make molds for as much new material as was needed. They
also sold antique hanging lamps, and other pieces. Their
ceiling was a parachute, as was the ceiling in the “Round
House” bar in Put-In-Bay, Ohio. For the office/showroom
we used multi-lite, “barn sash” windows in the octagonal
office up at the point of the roof. It is usually necessary
to have some sort of structure at the peak anyway, because
unlike a yurt, which is a temporary structure, a permanent,
insulated house, needs the roof to be vented. The vent area
needs to be at least 1/300 of the attic area on a steep roof,
and 1/150th on a shallow pitch. That it a big area, and will
usually require a belvedere (cupola) of some sort. With a
small “room” up there, it is easy to vent, where the roof
meets the wall.

Like these barn roofs:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks01601.htm

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks01801.htm

Or, this church with a mix of influence from as diverse
sources as Frank Lloyd Wright and the Parthanon. Still
vented at the top.

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks01802.htm

A vented octagonal gazebo:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks01803.htm

It appears to be a theme around Arkansas City, Kansas.

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks01804.htm

Tacky:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks01901.htm

Classic:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks02201.htm

Wasted:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks02401.htm

Turbine vented attic:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks02601.htm

Eight Gables:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks02701.htm

Modern metal roof:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks02801.htm

Like a fallen castle:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks03901.htm

I'd love to turn this into a house:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks03902.htm

Wow! All that curved wood:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04401.htm

A little one:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04402.htm

Round vent:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04501.htm

Round:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04601.htm

Round Addition:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04602.htm

Windmill:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04701.htm

Double Octagons….vented around chimneys:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04702.htm

Sixteen Sided Classic Barn:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks04901.htm

Twelve Sides:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks05004.htm

Multi-vented Dome:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks05801.htm

Huge Dome:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks05802.htm

Round Barn, Faceted Cupola:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks05803.htm

Trusswork:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks06301.htm

Belvedere:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks07501.htm

Small Cupola:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks07801.htm

Red Roof:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08701.htm

Contemporary (notice the raise venting)

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08702.htm

Unique (venting ?)

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08703.htm

More F. L. Wright Influence:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08704.htm

Central Skylight:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08705.htm

Round Metal Silo Roof:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08707.htm

Church:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08709.htm

Crown Vent:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08712.htm

Barn Themed Church…..vent under steeple:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08713.htm

Another one:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08714.htm

Adobe? Wood Shingles w/low vent:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08715.htm

Antenna Gazebo ;O)

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08716.htm

A Wright influenced Round House:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08718.htm

Multiple Octagons (open, so not vented)

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08727.htm

Organic:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08728.htm

Another Classic:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks08902.htm

Victorian Turret:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks09602.htm

Good Venting:

http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/kansas/htm/ks10401.htm

Even Buckminster Fuller got into the idea:

http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/

Another of my octagonal houses had a special meditation
spot, that even the owner did not know about, when I designed
the house. He had wanted a special place, but was very surprised
by what he saw from there. I had 'explored' the property, and
even climbed up on a tall step ladder to take 360° of panoramic
pictures, in order to figured out that from up there, over thirty
feet off the ground, that it would look like the house was on a
peninsula, by revealing a bay off the small lake, which had not
been visible from the ground, at the house site. In keeping
with the oriental philosophy of keeping special places special,
by limiting their access, in that house, you had to climb a ladder,
built into a bookcase, in a tiny master bedroom office, up to a
small loft level, then you'd have to climb an even taller ladder,
through open space, up to a very tiny glass room, over the highest
point of the roof, with a little outside deck, just big enough to sit
on with you legs dangling. The reward for the long climb was, that
it overlooked the whole roof and his great property, from a view
point that had only been available to birds. There was also a
hanging platform for him to sit on in the glass room, and look out
over his world, as it would slowly swing with every movement.
That might not be for everybody, but it was quite magical.

This next one has a rather complex roof system, with high
open ceilings throughout. Since the porches and overhangs
vary around the house, at angles, the exterior walls also
needed to have sloping tops, so that the facias (the eaves)
would be perfectly level, the entire 250 or so feet around
the house, porches and garage. That required me to come up
with a very unique building system, where the facias, and
porch ceilings, were built before the rafter were put in
place, then after the roof was up, the bearing walls, that
really support the roof, were built as the last piece.

Since the ceilings are on the bottom of the rafters, and
most of the rafters terminate at hip rafters, so I could not
use ridge vents or standard attic vents, I developed a unique
system to vent between rafter spaces, and the whole roofs
vent up to where they meet the walls of the central structure.
I believe this is the only building with full venting of such a
complex catherdral ceiling roof, without having to build a
double roof, or have an attic. It is a very unique structure.

BTW, though this building looks very big, it was originally
rejected by the local review board for being too small.
I was only able to get it approved, when I cited the
section of the BOCA Building Code which stated that
any space which is over 51% above grade is not basement.
That meant that the walkout (or most any walkout) had to
be included in the living space area. This house was
designed to look huge, but that is a trick. The main body
of the house is only 16' deep, and is somewhere in the range
of about 1000ft². It appears to be the grand mansion
on the hill, overlooking the lake, in the heart of one of
the richest area in the nation. It was built in the mid
1980s, for about $100,000. The owner was the general
contractor, but did none of the actual work.

http://web.axilar.net/LarenCorie/VictorianSouth.jpg

http://web.axilar.net/LarenCorie/VictorianNorth.jpg

I know another roundish house, which I did not design, that
was built like a wooden Teepee, from eight cedar poles. It
was then sheathed, insulated, finished. It was a very creative
house, designed by the owner, who was a professional artist.
It was truly exciting to look at, both outside and in. It also
had a high loft, up in the point, with a beautiful salvaged
church railing. The problem with the loft, was that it had
no connection to outdoors, or much of the human experience
beyond looking AT it, rather than truly experience LIVING
IN it. It was great two dimensional art, and even great three
dimensional art, but it did not carry through to the dimensions
of time, experience, and life that are the essence of architecture.
Upper level windows and porches offer a view on the world,
which is different from the perspective on the ground. Much of
the life of the forest is up on that level. It is a shame to not
be able to access it, especially since the house living space
already reaches up there. Most of us have at least a tiny
dream of a treehouse. An upper level porch balcony or
deck, near a tree, as can be seen on many Victorian
houses, creates a very similar feel.

> I think I am partial to a high ceiling/Murphy bed.

Murphy beds, and other built-ins can give double
function to small spaces, and relieve crowding, that
can result from using standard furniture. I recently
set-up a very small workroom/ guest bedroom, 9'x10'
with a truncated corner. I put book cases along one
long wall, under windows, and raised the double bed
platform, up on top of two dressers, a computer rack
and a pull-out stand for a printer and scanner. The
bed platform could be used as a large work surface.
The mattress was just an inflatable, so it could be
moved, and even stored easily. The end of the bed
platform, made of doors, even with the mattress in
place, serves as a desk, and there is a huge storage
space underneath. We are generally very wasteful
of space, and have never developed a good working
knowledge of space conservation approaches. There
are also ways to make a space “feel” or “look” much
bigger, even though it may not actually be.

> I am curious about Marmoleum tiles, as a floor covering.

It seems to be fairly expensive. The adhesive alone is over
75¢/ft² then the tile is $3.25 to over $4.50/ft² However,
it should last quite a while, and you could buy extra tiles to
replace only the worn areas, as it aged. I think they are
getting a big premium for it being a “green” product.

For that kind of money you could have marble floors.
A major factor in deciding the floor covering or finish,
is whether the floor is on grade, or is an elevated wood
structural floor. Solar heating and cooling strategies
also effect the floor materials. There is a lot of
flexibility, but some materials and techniques
are more compatible with certain other ones.

> We have bats and bears to think about. I like to think
> that if I build a nice free-standing bat-house, they won't
> be coming in the people-house.

As long as your roof venting is properly screened, there
is no problem. Bats are an issue with old, leaky buildings,
and open shed, and garages, not modern house construction.
However, a bat house is a good idea, because it keeps your
bat population up, which keeps your mosquito population
down. Bears are usually not a big problem, unless you put
out feed for other creatures. Bears, in warm weather are
22/7 eating machines. One year I fed the wild birds into
summer, and one of the biggest black bears I have ever
seen, broke my kitchen window, only a couple of feet from
me, as he tried to get at the bird feed. I quit feeding the
birds in the summer, and I never saw the bear again.
Porcupines, skunks, and woodpeckers can be an even greater
problem. Some porcupines like the salty taste of wood stain.
Skunks can move in under the house. And, woodpeckers love
weathered log homes, like my south wall. Building a new
Solar sunspace over it will remedy that. ;O)

Laren Corie
Passive Solar Building Design Since 1975

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WoodGas

“Generate electricity from wood”

http://wais.stanford.edu/LatinAmerica/latinamer_challengetocubaandnicaragua32602.html

Tim Brown answers Hank Levin: “Professor Levin asks for some documentary evidence that Marxist ditatorships falsify literacy data. I suggest he look at Charles Stansifer, “The Nicaraguan National Literacy Campaign”, American Universities Field Staff reports, Hanover, Vt.1981. On page 12, Stansifer reports without criticism that literacy rates in Nicaragua by Department [province or state] had increased by up to 62.61% from October 1979 to August 1980, thanks to that revolution's Lieracy Campaign. He reports that by August 1980 literacy had reached 95.85% in the Department of Esteli, 97.77% in Chinandega, 87.81% in Nueva Segovia, and 63.75% in Matagalpa. He fully accepts without wuestion that this miracle happened. These and comparable data were then routinely repeated throughout the Revolution by UN agencies, academics, and others.

Eleven years later, in 1991, the OAS and UN tested literacy rates in the rural areas of these same four Departments, Esteli, Chinandega, Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa, where 80% or more of their populations live. Literacy rates were found to be between 3% and 5% [illiteracy of 95% to 97%]. When Iooked at both Stansifer's data and these later data while researching my book The Real Contra War, I was able independently to substantiate the UN/OAS data but not Stansifer's, and could imagine only two possible explanations for the amazing difference between them. One, while about 90% the peasants in the Segovian mountains had, in fact, learned how to read and write during the initial nine months of the Revolution's literacy campaigns, they had forgotten how by 1991; or, two, the data reported by Stansifer were at the very least wildly exaggerated and more probably had simply been invented by the revolutionary government. Regardless, I also found that even though these data were wrong, they were then repeated almost ad nauseam in subsequent publications by opponents of US policy toywards the Sandinista Revolution, by sympathizers of that movement, and by international organizations and academics even though they were based purely on unsubstantiated claims made by the Sandinista government in its reports.

On Cuba, I'm happy finally to learn what methodology UNESCO used, “testing across countries using a common methodology and standardized statistical tests of the results.” The only way to obtain entirely valid results by using this methodology is first fully to identify the entire universe to be tested [N], in the case of literacy that would be everyone in a country between the ages of 12 and 65 except the mentally incompetent, and then to test each individual in that universe. This is the only way to obtain statistically defensible results with almost no margin of error. Since this is usually prohibitively expensive and time-consuming when a universe is very large, the common approach is to use random sample surveying techniques to approximate a fully valid result within a mathematically quantifiable margin of error, in this case to approximate literacy levels within a stated percentage of probability of accuracy, say 3-5% one way or the other. To be valid, this also requires first obtaining a complete listing of everyone in the universe to be examined. Then one must assigning a number to each of them, determine how many need to be tested in order to draw statistically defensible conclusions, then generate a valid sampling set from among them using a random units table, then locating each person selected, and then testing only them. Unless the internal integrity and research independence of each of these steps is guaranteed, the results lose statistical integrity and more and more become simply approximations. The less freedom and independence the researcher has to identify, select, contact, and test all the subjects selected, the less defensible the results. It is still possible to manipulate the findings, but such manipulations become increasingly problematical the further they stray from the core data.